Petrological evolution of silica-undersaturated sapphirine-bearing granulite in the Paleoproterozoic Salvador-Curaçá Belt, Bahia, Brazil

The Salvador-Curaçá Belt, located in São Francisco Craton, Brazil, was subjected to granulite facies metamorphism during the Paleoproterozoic orogeny (c. 2.0 Ga). Well preserved in enclaves of silica-undersaturated sapphirine-bearing granulite occur in a charnockite outcrop located along a kilometric-scale shear zone. The sapphirine-bearing granulite preserves domains with distinct mineral assemblages that record interactions between melt and peritectic phases (orthopyroxene1 + spinel1 + biotite1). Sapphirine was crystallized in the Si-poor cores of the enclaves, sillimanite and spinel-cordierite symplectites in the intermediate Si-rich domains between cores and margins, and garnet and quartz-bearing cordierite/biotite symplectites in Si-rich margins of the enclaves. Melt-rock interactions and metamorphism occurred at ultrahigh temperatures of 900-950 °C at 7.0-8.0 kbar pressures. The mineralogical evolution of the domains reflects not only the influence of changes in bulk composition in the equilibrium volume of the reactions but also P-T changes during orogeny evolution. Electron microprobe dating of monazite both in the sapphirine-bearing granulite and charnockite indicates UHT metamorphism timing at c. 2.08-2.05 Ga that is related to global Paleoproterozoic UHT metamorphic events that occurred during the Columbia supercontinent assembly.